The National Automobile Dealers Association continues to believe hundreds of dealerships closing due to the 2008-2009 auto bailout didn't have to occur, according to its chairman.
Dunlop Pontiac closed after 85 years of business after General Motors discontinued the Pontiac brand in 2009. (Bay City Times File Photo).
DETROIT, MI- As the U.S. auto industry recovers, the National Automobile Dealers Association continues to believe that hundreds of dealerships shouldn't of been forced to close as part of the 2008-2009 auto bailout.
“The rescue plan was needed or this industry would have been in dire straights,” NADA Chairman Bill Underriner said during an Automotive Press Association meeting Tuesday in Detroit. “The (dealership) closings did not need to happen.”
Underriner, who lost a dealership due to the $85 billion bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, said it was a "very sad" time -- citing a 2010 study done by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program of the U.S. Treasury Department also supported the organization's stance.
“Treasury made a series of decisions that may have substantially contributed to the accelerated shuttering of thousands of small businesses and thereby potentially adding tens of thousands of workers to the already lengthy unemployment rolls," said the report, released by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Neil Barofsky in July 2010.
Backed by the U.S. government, GM, according to the report, originally informed more than 2,000 dealers that some or all of their agreements would not be renewed and Chrysler eliminated 789 dealers. But both automakers voluntarily rescinded some terminations — 666 at GM and 50 at Chrysler.
“I really feel for anybody who has had their dealership taken away from them,” said Underriner, who still has a dealership in Montana. “We pay good money for these dealerships. We work very hard with our communities to do the right things … to help our communities.”
NADA represents nearly 16,000 new car and truck dealers, with 32,500 franchises, both domestic and international.
Check back to MLive.com/auto Wednesday morning for more from NADA, including why the organization is against stair-step incentives and factory-mandated dealership upgrades.